state of Scotland's Greenspace Report

Drawing on information from OS Greenspace, the Third State of Scotland’s Greenspace Report (published on 1 February 2018) reveals the extent and type of urban greenspace in all 32 Scottish local authority areas. It also provides summary information from the 2017 Greenspace Use and Attitude Survey and the Improvement Service Local Government Benchmarking Framework.

Key findings include:

Scotland’s towns and cities are more green than grey – 54% of the urban land area is greenspace

The total area of urban greenspace is 1,593 square kilometres – equivalent to 22 Loch Lomonds

This equates to 27 hectares of greenspace per 1000 people (excluding private gardens) – equivalent to a tennis court size of greenspace per person

28% of greenspace is classified as private gardens and grounds, with amenity greenspace making up a further 37% - together these two types account for two-thirds of Scotland’s greenspace

public parks and sports areas (which are the accessible public spaces most often used in daily life) account for 4% and 9% of greenspace respectively

Scots love their parks and greenspaces - with over 90% saying it is important to have greenspace in their local area

Urban greenspaces are popular outdoor destinations - with nearly half (43%) of urban Scots visiting their local greenspace once a week or more often (but frequency of use has fallen from a peak in 2009 when nearly two-thirds (63%) visited weekly)

Whilst most respondents (74%) were satisfied to some extent with the quality of their local greenspace, 40% agreed or agreed strongly that ‘the quality of my local greenspace has reduced in the past 5 years’ (up from 33% in 2011 – and rising to 50% for respondents from the most deprived areas)

The falls in greenspace quality and use, mirror falls in expenditure – with Council expenditure on parks and greenspace falling from £27,814 per 1000 people in 2010/11 to £21,794 in 2015/16

Summary tables provide the area and percentage cover for the main types of greenspace in each local authority area.The report contains a number of case studies illustrating how greenspace delivers on the strategic objectives of the Scottish Government.

State of Scotland’s Greenspace provides a valuable baseline for analysing future trends and examining the impacts of greenspace policy and investment. We intend to produce the State of Scotland Greenspace Reports biennially.

The production of the Third State of Scotland’s Greenspace Report was supported by the Scottish Government.

The first State of Scotland's Greenspace Report (2009) and Second State of Scotland’s Greenspace Report (2012) can be downloaded from the publications section here